Microprocessors are general-purpose processors that provide high instruction throughputs in order to execute software running thereon, and can have a wide range of processing requirements depending on the particular software applications involved. Many different types of processors are known, of which microprocessors are but one example. For example, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) are widely used, in particular for specific applications, such as mobile processing applications. DSPs are typically configured to optimize the performance of the applications concerned and to achieve this they employ more specialized execution units and instruction sets. Particularly in applications such as mobile telecommunications, but not exclusively, it is desirable to provide ever-increasing DSP performance while keeping power consumption as low as possible.
To further improve performance of a digital system, two or more processors can be interconnected. For example, a DSP may be interconnected with a general-purpose processor in a digital system. The DSP performs numeric intensive signal processing algorithms while the general-purpose processor manages overall control flow. The two processors communicate and transfer data for signal processing via shared memory. A direct memory access (DMA) controller is often associated with a processor in order to take over the burden of transferring blocks of data from one memory or peripheral resource to another and to thereby improve the performance of the processor.
An operating system (OS) is generally provided to manage the digital system by controlling resources and scheduling execution of various program modules or tasks. In a system with several processors, it may be convenient to have a separate OS for each processor. Generally an OS assumes that it is in control of all system resources. Many OSs were not designed in a manner to share memory and resources with another OS. Therefore, when two or more OSs are combined in a single system, resource allocation problems may occur. Conflicts over use of memory or peripheral devices may have dire consequences for system operation.
Most processors are built with 2 levels of privilege: one for the OS, and another one for user tasks. There have been proposals for a third privilege level but this is seldom implemented in current CPUs.
A few operating systems have been certified as secure for specific financial or safety critical applications. Some general-purpose operating systems claim to have security built in, but their fragility is well publicized.
Hardware mechanism can be employed to improve security. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,552, entitled Security Bit For Designating The Security Status Of Information Stored In A Nonvolatile Memory discloses a mechanism for securing data storage by providing one or more security bits that can be permanently set to inhibit off-chip resources from accessing on-chip memory, thereby protecting code or data stored in the on-chip memory. However, errant operation of the operating system may overcome such security measures.
Thus, improvements in operating system security are needed.